an opinion piece for the same newspaper<\/a>, Ms Clegg said that while the allegations were a matter for the courts, broader questions about parental responsibility and school culture could not be ignored.<\/p>\n\u201cPerhaps there is a boys\u2019 culture problem here. But before commissioning another consent seminar for 13-year-olds, might we look at the behaviour and culture being displayed by the anonymous parents?.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Clegg, a mother of four adult children, said she had experienced eastern suburbs private school culture first-hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been here before,\u201d Ms Clegg wrote in her piece. \u201cWhen Chanel Contos\u2019 campaign exploded across Sydney\u2019s private schools in 2021, the accounts of teenage sexual behaviour deserved to be taken seriously,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA legitimate question arose: what had schools failed to teach? Principals met, curriculums were examined and consent education was expanded.<\/p>\n
\u201cYet I remember being struck at the time by another aspect of eastern suburbs adolescent culture, which I knew first-hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew parents who dropped young teenage daughters at parties with bottles of gin tucked beneath coats.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey knew their children were drinking illegally and excessively. They collected them in the early hours, stumbling drunk onto the footpath, and they would recount the exploits with amusement and a vicarious pleasure in their children\u2019s participation in the \u2018right\u2019 social scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod knows what went on inside those homes, in unattended bedrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Clegg stressed she was not suggesting that the women were in any way to blame for being sexually assaulted. Nor was Clegg\u2019s column about Contos in any way, as she acknowledged her campaign raised \u201clegitimate\u201d questions about behaviour amongst teens.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing about being drunk diminishes a girl\u2019s right not to be sexually assaulted. But this does raise an obvious question for adults,\u2019\u2019 she wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf parents permit teenagers to drink themselves senseless on weekends at unsupervised parties, why should foreseeable consequences be diagnosed as a failure of school culture?<\/p>\n
Ms Clegg noted that Scots College\u2019s correspondence with parents explained that the alleged incident occurred away from school and outside school hours. <\/p>\n
The college said it had no first-hand knowledge of what occurred and would not prejudice the legal process or disclose individual arrangements concerning the children. <\/p>\n
Consent and respectful relationships have been taught from kindergarten through senior school for at least 15 years.<\/p>\n
\u201c … a school is not a parent. And criminal charges against three young teens is not evidence of failure by a school,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n
She suggested that parents who did not like the private school culture could vote with their feet.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the anonymous parental commentary is bewildering. For the father who complained the accused boys should be expelled apparently the solution is to punish three children before their guilt has been determined,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother declared: \u2018It\u2019s just not the culture I want my son in\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is an obvious solution for these parents … if you believe your son\u2019s school has a toxic culture, then take your son out.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of this tells us what happened or about the four families involved \u2013 about whom we should have the decency not to speculate,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood parents can have children who make terrible choices and children themselves do have moral agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe childish response by some adults to these serious and unhappy allegations is another reminder that civil society depends upon culture and habits that neither the law nor institutions such as schools can compel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liberal leader Angus Taylor\u2019s wife Louise Clegg has lashed private school parents for letting underage teenagers get 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